since 1871

So I've been full-on depressed for months, but yesterday I had ENERGY so I cleaned my room (HAHA I cleaned abt 35% of it, b/c it's a creepy hoarder's nest) and hung stuff up, including better curtains, which are red, and across the room from the windows I tacked up a pretty dark knotworky tapestry I got for Christmas.

I've been feelin' real hermit-y lately. I'm adjusting to my new full- time job, starting a part time job end of this month, moving to a new apartment Aug first, then two weeks later a trip to Toronto (Hellloooo 24-hour Geeyhound ride! \o/) and getting a dog after that trip. (I already bought a leash. DON'T JUDGE ME.)

Working up the energy & confidence to do OkCupid first dates and maybe some Meetups in the meantime makes me want to curl up in the fetal position the rest of the time. Fetal? Foetal. Idk.

My brother, who has lived in The Big City for years, has been not-at-all supportive, and coming to grips with the fact that I can't rely on him for support really sucks. At least I have my little sis in Cali, who's going through a similar new-house-new-job stage of life. (Except she has an awesome boyfriend who has supportive family in the area. I'm planning to adopt a dog mid-August...that's almost the same, right?)

Anyway.

My day job doesn't suck too hard. It'll pay the rent/gas/food & the cost of repainting a scratch I left on a guy's car. He's super nice, so no insurance involvement (and it's, like, one scratch), but it's still money I would have liked to save.

I'm still having fun wearing different kinds of clothes and hitting up thrift stores on sale days. I'm enjoying fashion experimentation. :-)

I watched all of "The Fall" and "Top of the Lake," so I need new TV recommendations. I like: shows with compelling characters & shows that will keep me engaged but not on the edge of my seat nervous (Suits season 2 was too stressful for me to watch.) Let me know if you have any rec's, esp if they're on Netfilx or Amazon Prime.

Spent 1am-5am in a parked bus on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck to fix a flat tire. Needless to say, missed the train I had a ticket for. Missed the next train, which was three hours after that one. Won't be another train for three hours.

You were awkward. Why did we spend so long talking about cats? I'm a dog person.

...maybe that's why it was awkward. Also, hypothetical questions about how I would answer questions that I don't know the answers to because I haven't been through training are mean. And you can tell your scribbly-therapist's-notepad that I said that. Only don't, because I want this job. Even if it's only a couple of evenings a couple of weeks each month. I NEEDS MAH MONEYS SO I CAN GO TO SCHOOL.

Also--I don't put a lot of stock in handshakes. But. Yours was really limp. And I stood up when you left the table. Is that...is that weird? Chivalrous? Something only dudes are supposed to do? I am a reasonably butch woman, does that make it okay? It did kind of make it so I loomed over you, though, because I am tall and you were short. Nice lasting impression, y/y?

LOVE,HB

*sigh*

Dear Crazy Uncle,

No. No, I will not go car shopping with you this weekend. Not just because I don't know anything about cars, not because I think that buying a car right now is a stupid financial decision (it is), not because I'm homophobic and want to avoid physical contact with you (really? REALLY?), but because the last time I went car shopping with you I almost died.

(He claimed to know how to drive a stick shift. HE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A STICK SHIFT. Me and my sister were in the back seat, the car salesman was in the passenger seat. The whole test drive was a blur of near-misses, loud screeching noises, the salesman's awkward laugh, Crazy Uncle shouting THEY DID NOT USED TO BE LIKE THIS, and my sister and I clutching on to each other for dear life. It was like being on a roller coaster. A roller coaster going the wrong way down a one-way street.)

LOVE,YOUR NIECE

IN THE GOOD NEWS FRONT: GUESS WHO HAS A HOUSE? THIS GUY's parents! My folks have purchased a house! Assuming their loan comes through. Which means we've got about a month to pack up the house that we've been in for two years. I'm the only person in my family who's not a serious packrat (...books don't count). So I'll be spending the next month carting around boxes will all of my brother's old lego collections, my sister's old shoes and purses (from before she turned into a dumpster-diving-anarchist-vegan-hipster), my dad's papers and class notes from the last thirty years, and my mother's collection of HEY THIS BOX OF THINGS IS ONLY A DOLLAR MAN AUCTIONS SURE ARE FUN purchases.